Some Account of the Beard and the Moustachio: Chiefly from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century

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SOME ACCOUNT

OF THE

BEARD AND THE MOUSTACHIO,

CHIKFLY FROM THK

SIXTEENTH TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

BY JOHN ADEY REFI^ON, F.S.A.

LONDON :

PRINTED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON,

25, PARLIAMENT STREET.

1839.

VO. ^ . r^

21

SOME ACCOUNT

OF THE

BEARD AND THE MOUSTACHIO.

The very great variety in the form of the Beard
and the Mustachio must be remarked by all collec-
tors and admirers of ancient portraits. In Plate I.
and II. I have endeavoured to select some specimens
of the most curious forms. No attempt is made to
give an account of the Beard from the earliest ages
to the present day, as such a history would occupy
a large volume ; but some extracts relative to the
fjubject have been made from various ancient works
(some of them not generally known) which may
possess interest in the opinion of those who are
curious in their inquiries respecting the fashions and
customs of former days; any methodical arrange-
ment of a subject so variable in its nature must not
be expected, nor can we judge of the date of any
portrait from the form of the Beard. The same
person is frequently represented with a different
shaped Beard in almost every portrait that has been
taken of him, from which we may suppose that his
fanciful taste changed at the different periods of life ;
nor is it easy to ascertain whether the portraits of
individuals of former ages are correct likenesses.

B

In Plate VII. of the Bayeux Tapestry, pub-
lished by the Society of Antiquaries, King Edward
the Confessor is three times represented with a
Beard like so many rows of carrots or radishes,
while, in Plate I. he appears with a forked Beard
and long Mustachios hanging down : but in a paint-
ing in Westminster Abbey (of which a plate is given
in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1825), there is a
totally different representation of the Beard of the
same person. How great is the difference between
tlje commonly received portrait of Edward IL with
black eyes, and a Beard composed of corkscrew
curls, and the dignified countenance of that Monarch
in Gloucester Cathedral.

In the second volume of Antiquities (by the late
Mr. J. Carter), are portraits of the Kings of England
from the Conquest to Henry V. taken from the screen
of York Cathedral. The artist who executed them,
according to the fashion of his time, has represented
most of them with long corkscrew Beards and Mus-
tachios, particularly in William the Conqueror and
his sons ; although from history, and from the Bayeux
Tapestry, we are assured that the Normans did not
wear them. The Beards of Edward III. Richard II.
and Henry IV. are different from their effigies de-
scribed in Cough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great
Britain.

Granger, who has been cautious in admitting
ideal heads in collections of portraits, remarks, that
"Antiquaries are sometimes apt to believe lustily
" with respect to the authenticity of paintings and

sculptures, and admit some things into their col-

Cf

lections with as much readiness as they ought to
be rejected. Such trash may serve to fill a chasm
of a series, to add to its number, and answer the
" purpose of refreshing or fixing the memory. In
" this view, the portrait of the blacksmith at Oxford
'^ may be just as useful as if John Baliol had sat
" for it."

From the earliest ages, the Beard was highly
valued by the possessor of it. By the Jews it was
esteemed a great dignity, — this is explained by a
note to Isaiah, chap. VII. in Mant's Bible : —

The hairs of the head are those of highest order
in the state ; those of the feet, or lower parts, are
the common people ; the beard, the king, the high-
priest, the very supreme in dignity and majesty."
In later times, even among the lower orders, the
Beard was considered as a mark of sovereignty. In
the installation of the King of the Beggars, in Beau-
mont and Fletcher, is a description of choosing a
king, — a person who had the longest and the largest
Beard — in the following strain of irony: —

" But what need presage
" To us, that might have read it in thy beard
" As well as he that chose thee ? By that beard
" Thou wer't found out and mark'd for sovereignty .
" Oh happy beard ! but happier prince, whose beard
" Was so remarked, as marked out our prince.
Not bating us a hair. Long may it grow.
And thick and fair, that who lives under it
May live as safe as under beggar's bush,
" Of which this is the thing, that but the type."

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Again —

This is the beard, the bush, or bushy beard,
" Under whose gold and silver reign 'twas said.
So many ages since, — ^we all shall smile.
No impositions, taxes, grievances, —
Knots in a state, and whips unto a subject, —
lie lurking in this beard, but all kemb'd out :
If now, the beard be such, what is the prince
That owes (owns) the beard ? A father ? No ! A
" grandfather ?
" Nay, — the great grandfather of you his people."

Very different was the fashion in this country in
the year 1766. Mr. Clubbes, in his " Free Advice to
"a Young Clergyman," recommended him "not to
" come into that Jewish fashion of wearing a skirting
*^ of beard round the face ; in them it may be proper
" enough, but with us, openness of countenance is
" the characteristic of an ingenuous mind."

Bulwer, in his "Artificial Changling" (1653), has
devoted twenty-three pages to the subject of Beards
and Mustachios. In page 198, he speaks of shaving
the chin as a dishonour to Nature, and considers it as
an act not only of indecency, but of injustice and
ingratitude against God and Nature ; repugnant to
Scripture, wherein we are forbidden not to corrupt
the upper lip, and lower the honour of the Beard,
or shave it," &c. (See Levit. xix. 17.)
In page 200-1, he shows that the cutting of a
person's Beard was considered a severe punish-
ment : —

" Paradine writeth that certaine young gentlemen

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" who followed the Earl of Savoy were so served for
"forcing a Damsell, and the father made deelara-
" tion that he was well satisfied."

The highest degree of spite or malice which could
be oflFered to an enemy was sometimes shown^ not
only by cutting off the head, but afterwards to shave
the Beard, and set the mouth in a grinning position.
In the fourteenth volume of the Archseologia, there
is an engraving of two pieces of sculpture from
Romsey Church. In the first — A king is represented
seizing another by the Beard, while their swords are
held by angels. If any conjecture be allowed, it
seems that so great was the insult in pulling the
Beard, that not even angels had the power of pre-
venting a battle ; this conjecture is strengthened by
viewing the other piece of sculpture, where only
one of the kings is to be seen, the large grinning
head, and without a Beard, was most probably in-
tended for the other. This may in some degree be
confirmed by a romance of Richard Coeur de Lion,
who, in the treatment of his Saracen prisoners, com-
manded his steward to go —

" To the prisoun ;

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The Sarezynes off most renoun.
That be come off the rycheste kynne,
Pryvyly let hem slay withinne ;
And as the heddes off thou smyte,
Looke every manny's name thou wryte.
Upon a scrowe off parchemyn,
And ber the hedes to the kechjoi.
And in a cawdroun thou hem caste,
" And bede the cok sethe hem faste ;

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" And loke that hee her here off strype,
^^ Off hed, off herd, and eke off lyppe.
" Whenne we schole sytte and eete,
*^ Looke that ye nought forgeete,
" To serve hem herewith in this maner : —
Lay every hed on a plater ;
Bring it hoot forth al in thyn hand^
Upward hys vys, the teeth grennand," &c.

Bulwer, in page 197^ thus describes the utility of
the Mustachio : — ^^ More thankfull to Nature is the
ingenious Montaigne in his Essaies^ in his private
acknowledgments, where speaking of one who was
wont to find faults with Nature, that she had not
^' made provision for a sweet-bag to hang under our
" noses, he explodes the cavill, alleadging that his
" Mustachoes served him to that purpose in retain-
ing the sent (scent) of his perfumed gloves, or any
other sweet, wherewith he had touched them,
which verely is a considerable use that may be
" made of this part. I knew a gentleman of good
worth, who being almost Edentulus, and his cheeks
sinking in by reason of the decay of his teeth, wore
his Mustachoes thick and standing up to conceale
that lapse of his visage."
In page 210, he gives a curious wood-cut of a
very long Beard, with the following words : —

" A little too indulgent of Beerd are the Germans,
" who affect a prolix Beerd, insomuch as some of
'^ them have been seen to have had their Beerds so
*^ long, that they would reach unto their feet, which
" they have worn trussed up in their bosomes."
The fashion of long Beards prevailed in England

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during the reign of Edward IIL as may be found in
the following extract from the Chronicle of England,
printed by Wynken de Worde (edit. 1 528) : —

^^ And at y® tyme y* Englysshmen were clothed all
^^ in cotes & hodes peynted with lettres & with
" flomres full semely, with longe berdes, & therefore
" y« Scottes made a byll that was upon y* chirche

dores of Saynt Peters towarde Stengate, & thus

sayd 3^* scripture in despyte of Englysshemen.

^ Longe berdes hertles, peynted hodes witles.

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" ^ Gaye cotes graceles, makethEnglonde thryftles.' "
Granger, in one instance at least, offers some ex-

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cuse for this extravagant custom : —

The Rev. Mr. J. More, of Norwich, one of the

worthiest clerg3anen in the reign of Elizabeth,

gave the best reason that could be given for wear-
^^ ing the longest and the largest beard of any

Englishman of his time, namely, that no act of his

life might be unworthy of the gravity of his ap-
" pearance."

The Beard being held in so great veneration, it
was considered as the highest indignity if any one
attempted to pull it. In a note from Grey's Hudi-
bras : —

"7b pull the Devil by the beard^ a common say-
" ing in England. The being pulled by the beard
*^ in Spain, is deemed as dishonourable as being
" kicked on the seat of honour in England."

But this dishonour was not confined to England
and Spain ; it was so in all other countries.

Archbishop Laud, when advised to make his es-
cape, replied, " If I should get into Holland, I should

10

** expose myself to the insults of those sectaries there,
" to whom my character is odious, and have every
" Anabaptist come and pull me by the beard." —
(Southejfs Book of the Church.)
: . To demand' a person's Beard was considered a still
greater insult ; for when King Ryons of Northwalys
sent his messenger to King Arthur to demand his
Beard, he received the following answer :

" Wei, sayd Arthur, thou hast said thy message, y^
" whiche is y® most vylaynous & lewdest message
"that ever man herd sent unto a kynge. Also thou
mayst see, my herd is ful yong yet to make a pur-
fyl of hit. But telle thow thy kynge this, I owe
hym none homage, ne none of myn elders, but, or
*^ it be longe to, he shall do me homage on bothe
his kneys, or else he shall lese his hede by y® feith
of my body, for this is y« most shamefullest mes-
" sage that ever I herd speke of. I have aspyed, thy
** kyng met never yet with worshipful men ; but tell
" hym, I wyll have his hede without he doo me
" homage. Thenne y* messager departed." (The
Byrth, Lyf and Actes of Kyng Arthur, edit, by Cax-
ton, 1485, reprinted 1817.)

To beard a person, is to affront him, or to set him
at defiance, as here explained by a note in Spenser's
Faerie Gueene, edited by Mr. Todd.

did beard^ afiront him to his face ; so Shak-
speare's King Henry IV. Part 1 , Act i. ^ I beard
" ^ thee to thy face.' Fr. Faire la Barbe a quelqu'un.
" Ital. Fa la barbe ad unoy — Upton.

" See Stecvens's note on the use of the word Beard
" in King Henry IV. which is adopted, he says, from

11

*^ romance, and originally signified to cut off the
'' heardr

A specimen of defiance is thus expressed in Aga^
memnon's speech to Achilles, aj9 translated by Chap-
man : —

— '^ and so tell thy strength how eminent
" My power is, being compared with thine ;

*^ all other making feare
" To vaunt equality with me, or in this

^' proud kind beare
" Their beards against me.'*

In Shirley's Play, " A Contention for Honour and
"Riches," 1633:—

" You have worn a sword thus long, to shew 3^ hilt,

" Now let the blade appear.
" Courtier. — Good Captain Voice,

*^ It shall, and teach you manners ; I have yet
No ague, I can look upon your buff.
And punto beard^ and call for no strong waters.'*

It is difficult to ascertain when the custom of pull-
ing the nose superseded that of pulling the Beard,
but most probably when the chin became naked and
close shaven, affording no longer a handle for insult.
WiUiam Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, in the reign
of James II. paid £30,000 for offering this insult to
a person at Court.

An earlier instance of attacking the nose may be
found in Ben Jonson's Epicaene, or the Silent Wo-
man, Act iv. Scene 5.

I shall now proceed with the account of the differ-
ent forms of the Beard, adding a few curious passages

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12

relating to the barbers of former days ; but before
entering upon this subject, I must beg leave to men-
tion an expression formerly used — viz. " To make
^^ any one's beard," which means, to cheat him, or to
deceive him, as in the Wjrf of Bathes Prologue of
Chaucer : —

In faith he shal not kepe me, but me lest :
Yet coude I make his herd, so mete I the."

And again, in the Reve's Tale, the Miller said,

^^ I trow, the clerkes were aferde

" Yet can a miller make a clerkes berde,

'' For all his art."

Bulwer, who has praised the Beard, gives a quota-
tion from Purchas's Pilgrims on the inconvenience
and filthiness of the Mustachio and the hair about
the mouth, in the following words : —

These men, by their practice, seem to be angry
that Nature hath planted haire about the mouth, a
thing very derogatorie to the honour of Nature,
with whom Scaliger (when his memory failed him)
*^ seems to assent, supposing that by reason of their
^^ position and corporiety besetting the upper lip, and
cloathing the mouth, they lye between the mouth
and holes of the nostrils, and prove troublesome to
the nose and mouth ; too nicely, withall, observing
" that the increase of these haires placed about the
mouth, hanging down very long (being as a hedge
about the mouth) did hinder the ingresse and
" egresse of those things for whose sake Nature has
^^ formed the mouth, whose office was commestion,
" or assumption of soUd aliment, the potation of the

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same aliment^ but liquid, expuition, and locution,
and sometimes respiration; to the which offices
^^ the lips could not be prompt and ready, beseiged
^^ with such long and propendent mustachoes, as the
*^ senses teach us ; for, although we endeavour to
" prevent the mustachio-haires while we eat, yet they
" descend, and entring together with the meat into
^^ the mouth, are bitten with teeth, whose pieces we
are compelled either to spit out, or sometimes im-
prudently to devour ; and if we drink, these haires
swim in our drinke, moystened with whose sprink-
ling dew, they drop down upon the beard of the
chin and cloaths, which is an unseemly sight; where-
fore, to prevent these inconveniences, we are faine
^^ to wipe them ; in spetting they interrupt the excre-
ment, for that which is ejected bespatters and
spaules them, which is an odious sight not to be
" endured. How they hinder and disturb elocution
every man cannot so readily perceive ; they only
are able to judge who can distinguish the least
^^ difference of voices. Their gravity and weight
*^ may also offend the upper lip, and render it unfit
" for a more easie motion."

The following quotation is from Aubrey's Letters :

*^ Ralph Kettle, D.D. preached in St. Mary's

" Church at Oxford, and, in conclusion of a sermon^

*^ said, ^ But now I see it is time for me to shutt up

' my booke, for I see the doctors' men come in

wiping their beards from the ale-house (he could

" ^ from the pulpit plainly see them, and 't was their

" ^ custome to go there, and, about the end of the

^' ^ Sermon, to return to wayte on their masters.' "

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From an old Play (Lyly's Mother Bombie^ Act I.
sc. 3, 1597-8), are the following words : —

" Tush, spit not you, and I '11 warrant I, my beard
" is as good as a handkerchief."

From the above quotations, it is no wonder to find
the Beard sometimes out of favour with ladies, as in
Marston's Antonio and Melida, (1062,) Act V.

" PiERO. — Faith, mad niece, I wonder when thou
*^ wilt marry ?"

" RossALiNE. — Faith, kind Uncle, when men aban-
don jealousy, forsake taking of tobacco, and cease
to wear their beards so rudely long. Oh ! to have
a husband with a mouth continually smoking, with
a bush of fiirze on the ridge of his chin, ready
^^ still to flop into his foaming chaps ; ah ! 't is more
" than most intolerable."

In another part of the same play, Rossaline, speaking
of her 39 servants (lovers), expresses her objection to
the third, " that he is as grave as some censor, and he
" strokes up his mustachios three times, and makes six
" plots of set faces, before he speak one wise word."
Thus, from the dislike sometimes expressed
against the Beard, barbers were extremely necessary,
as from Stubbes's Anatomic of Abuses (Part 2) —

" But yet I must need say (these nisities set apart)
*^ barbers are verie necessarie, for otherwise men
*^ should grow verie ougglesom and deformed, and
^^ their haire would in processe of time overgrowe
*^ their faces rather like monsters than comelie sober
" Christians."

Under this circumstance it was formerly the cus-
tom to waste much time in attending to the dressing

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of the hair and Beard^ as mentioned in a Note from
Grey's Hudibras, Part 11. Canto I. —

^^ Than if V were prurCdy and starcKd, and lan^
dered. — "In the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas,
intitled, Pylades and Corinna, 1731, page 21, we
have the following account of Mr. Richard Shute, her
Grandfather, a Turky Merchant, ^ that he was very
^nice in the mode of that age, his Valet being
" ^ some hours every morning in starching his Heard,
^ and curling his fVhiskers : during which time, »
' gentleman, whom he maintain'd as a companion,
' always read to him upon some useful subject.' "
As early as the reign of Edward VI. the complaint
of the loss of time bestowed upon the Beard may be
found in the "Declaration of the ten holy Cdm-
" maundementes, &c. by Joanne Hopper, (Hooper)
" Anno MDXLVIII (bl. let.)" The work is extremely
scarce and curious. The false spelling of words will,
therefore, be a sufficient reason for a short extract :

"Peter saithe, 1. Peter, 3. — ^The habit j and appa-
" rell of a woman shall not be in brodyd and splayde
" here, nether in laing on of gold | or costley aray,
ye se in oure tyme | that many bare more upon
there backes then they be worthe. A woman pam-
pered upp with precious stones and gold : knottyd
" be hind and afore, with more periles | then here
" husbond and she bestowethe in almes all dayes of
" there heffe. An other sort | that lacky the where-
" withe all to bestowe these charges : ar a dril-
" hng I and burling of there here a longer tyme | then
" a godlye woman that redithe the scr3rpture to folow
it, is in appareUng of three or fowre yongf infantes.

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"If this were onlie in the women | it were lesse
" harme : but it is also in men, for there is not as
" muehe as he that hathe but 40 schillinges by the
yere but is as long in the morning | to set his herd
in an order | as a godlie erawftis men would be | in
looming a peice of karsey."
The following are quotations from various works,
shewing the habits, manners, and customs of Barbers
of the 16th and 17th centuries. The first from
Stubbes's Anatomic of Abuses, 1583.

" They (the barbers) have invented such strange
"fashions of monstrous maners of cuttings, trim-
^' mings, shavings, and washings, that you would
" wonder to see. They have one maner of cut called
the French cut, another the Spanish cut, one the
Dutch cut, another the Italian, one the new cut,
" another the old, one the Gentleman's cut, another the
" common cut, one cut of the Court, another of the
" country, with infinite the like vanities, which I over-
" passe. They have also other kinds of cuts innumer-
" able, and, therefore, when you come to be trimed,
" they will ask you whether you will be cut to look ter-
" rible to your enemie, or amiable to your friend, grime
and steme in countenance, or pleesant and demure
(for they have divers kind of cuts for all their pur-
" poses, or else they lie). Then, when they have done
" all their feats, it is a world to consider how their
mowchatowes must be preserved or laid out, from
one cheke to another, and turned up like two homes
towards the forehead. Besides that, when they
come to the cutting of the haire, what snipping and
" snapping of the cycers is there, what tricking and .

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*^ triming, what rubbing, what scratchmg, what comb-

^^ mg and clawing, what trickUng and toying, and al to

" tawe out money you may be sure. And when they

" come to washing, oh! how gingerly they behave them-

" selves therein. For then shall your mouth be bossed

" with the lather, or fome that risith of the balles (for

•^ they have their sweete balles wherewithal! theyuse to

washe) your eyes closed must be anointed therewith

also. Then snap go the fingers, ful bravely, God

wot. Thus, this tragedy ended, comes in warme

clothes to wipe and dry him withall ; next the eares

must be picked and closed together again artificially

forsooth, the hair of nostriUs cut away, and every

thing done in order comely to behold. The last

^^ action in this tragedie is the paiment of monie."

The next quotation is from " A duip for an Upstart

Courtier, or a quaint dispute between Velvet

Breeches and Cloth Breeches," by Robert Green,

1592. "Marry, quoth Cloth-breeches, first to the

*^ barber. He cannot be but a partiall man in Velvet-

" breeches side, sith he gets more by one time dress-

" ing of him, than by ten times dressing of me. I

come plaine to be polde, and to have my beard cut,

and pay him two pence ; Velvet breeches he sits

" down in the chaire wrapt in fine cloathes, as though

" the barber were about to make him a foot-cloth

" for the Vicar of Saint Fooles : then begins he to

" take his sissars in his hand, and his comb, and so

" to snap with them, as if he meant to give a wam-

" ing to all the lice in his nitty locks for to prepare

" themselves, for the day of their destruction is at

" hande. Then comes he out with his fustian elo-

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quence^ and making a low conge, saith. Sir, will you
have your worship's cut after the Italien manner,
short and round, and then frounst with the curling
yron, to make it look like a half moon in a mist ?
Or like a Spanyard long at the eares, and curled
like to the two endes of an old cast perriwig ? Or
will you be Frenchified, withe a love-lock downe to
your shoulders ? wherein you may weare your mis-
tris favour. The English cut is base, and gentle-
men scome it ; novelty is dainty ; speake the worde,
sir, my sissar is ready to execute your worship's
wil. His head being once drest, which requires in
combing and rubbing some two howres, he comes
to the bason, then being curiously washt with no
^^ woorse then a camphere bal, he descends as low
as his beard, and asketh. Whether he pleese to be
shaven, or no ? Whether he will have his peak
cut short and sharpe, amiable like an inamorato, or
broade pendant like a spade, to be terrible, like a
^^ warrior and a soldado ? Whether he will have his
•" crates cut lowe like a juniper-bush, or his suberche
taken away with a rasor ? If it be his pleesure to
have his appendices primde, or his mouchaches
" fostered, to turn about his eares like the branches
" of a vine ; or cut downe to the lip with the Italien
'^ lashe, to make him look Uke a half-faced bauby in
"bras? These quaint termes, barber, you greet
" Maister Velvett-breeches withal, and at every word,
" a snap with your sissars, and a cring with your
"knee, whereas, when you come to poor Cloth-
" breeches, you either cutte his beard at your owne
" pleasure, or else in disdaine, ask him if he will be

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19

^^ trim'd with Christ's cut, round like the halfe of a
^^ Holland cheese ?" — Harl. Miscel. vol. ii. 280, 8vo.
A passage from Holinshed shews the various arts
the barbers possessed of improving the defective or
ugly features of their customers.

" I will saie nothing of our heeds, which some-
^^ times are polled, sometimes curled, or suffered to
*^ grow at length, like women's lockes, manie times
" cut off above and under the eares, round as by a
"wooden dish. Neither will I meddle with oiu*
*^ varietie of beards, of which some are shaven from
the chin like those of the Turks, not a few cut
short like to the beard of Marques Otto, some
" made round like a rubbing brush, other with a pique
devant (O fine fashion !), or now and then suffered
to grow long, the barbers being growen to be so
cunning in this behalfe as the tailors. And there-
" fore if a man have a lean and streight face, a Mar-
" quesse Otton's cut will make it broad and large ; if
" it be platter-Hke, a long slender beard will make
" it seeme the narrower ; if he be weesel becked, then
"much haire left on the cheekes will make the
" owner look like a bowdled hen, and so grim as a
" goose, if Cornelis of Chelmerefford saie true ; manie
" old men weare no beards at all. Some lustie cour-
"tiers also, and gentlemen of courage do weaxe
"either rings of gold, stones, or pearles in their
" eares," &c. (Vol. I. edit 1550.)

In Lyly's Midas, Act III. sc. 2 (1591), are some
instructions from Motto, the barber, to his boy.
" Motto. — Besides, I instructed thee in the
phrasis of our eloquent occupation, as. How, Sir, will

c

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20

*^ you be trimmed ? Will you have your beard like
'^ a spade, or a bodkin ? A pent-house on your upper
" lip, or an alley on your chin ? A low curl on your
"head like a bull, or dangling locke like a spaniell?
"your mustachios sharpe at the ends, like shoe-
^^ makers' aules, or hanging doun to your mouth like
" goate's flakes ? Your love-lockes wreathed with a
" silken twist, or shaggie, to fall on your shoulders ?"
The following passages afford us some idea of
the names of the different forms of Beards, and
are taken from a note in Johnson's and Steevens's
Shakspeare, by I. Reed (Henry V. Act III. sc.
6), which describes the variously shaped Beards
as belonging to individuals of different professions,
although this rule is not always to be depended
upon. " A Beard of a generals cut\ . It appears from
" an old ballad, inserted in a miscellany entitled Le
Prince d! Amour, 8vo. 1660, that our ancestors were
very curious in the fashion of their Beards, and
that a certain cut or form was appropriated to the
soldier, the bishop, the judge, the clown, &c. The
Spade Beard, and perhaps the Stiletto Beard also,
was appropriated to the first of these characters.
" It is observable that our author's patron, Henry
Earl of Southampton, who spent much of his time
in camps, is drawn with the latter of these Beards,
and his unfortunate friend Lord Essex is constantly
represented with the former.
" In the ballad above mentioned, the various forms
" of this fantastick ornament are thus described —
" Now if beards there be,
" Such a companie.

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21

" Of Fashion such a throng ;
*^ That it is very hard
" To treat of the beard.
Though it be ne'er so long.

((

" The Steeletto beard,—
" O, it makes me afeard,
" It is so sharp beneath ;
" For he that doth place
^^ A dagger in his face,
" What wears he in his sheath ?
# # #

"The Soldier's beard
** Doth match in this herd ;
** In figure like a Spade,
" With which he will make
" His enemies to quake.
To think their grave is made.

66

" Next the Clown doth out rush
" With the beard of the brush," &c.

Malone,

The next is from Bulwer's Artificial Changling,
p, 211—

Strange affectations of old had the Grecians in
the formality of the beard, it being reputed a
^^ solemn sign of a philosopher ; and some have been,
" and are so affected with the cut of their beards,
^^ that there have been cases invented to preserve
^' their formality. Guzman (I remember) plaies upon

c 2

it

a

((
a

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((
((

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it

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22

a formal Doctor for such a practicall absurdity,
girding at the cut of his beard ; for he saith, that
the fashion of his beard was just for all the world
like those upon your Flemish Jugs, and that a-
nights he puts it in a presse, made of two thin
Trenchers, sewed wonderfuUy close, that no Git-
teme can be closer shut up in its case, that it may
come forth the next morning with even comers,
bearing in grosse the form of a broome, narrow
above, and broad beneath ; his mustachios ruler
wise, straight and levell as a line, and all the other
haires as just as even as a privet hedge newly

" cut," &c.

Concerning Beard Cases. — In the following note

from Grey's Hudibras —

They were then so curious in the management
of their Beards, that some (as I am informed) had

" Pasteboard Cases to put over them in the night,

" lest they should turn upon them and rumple them

^^ in their sleep."

In Le Diable Boiteux — " Je suis curieux de savoir
qui est un homme que je remarque ; il a la mous-
tache en papilottes, et conserve in dormant un air

" de gravity qui me fait juger que ce ne doit pas

" 6tre un Cavalier de commun."

John Taylor, the water poet, has, in his Superbiae

Flagellum, described a great variety of Beards in his

time, but omitted his own, which is that of a screw

(see fig. 29)—

^' Now a few lines to paper I will put,

" Of men's beards strange, and variable cut,

" In which there's some that take aa vain a pride

23

^ As almost in all other things beside ;
** Some are reap'd most substantial like a brush,
" Which makes a nat'rel wit known by the bush ;
" And in my time of some men I have heard,
^^ YIThose wisdom have been only wealth and Beard ;
^^ Many of these the proverb well doth fit,
" YIThich says, bush natural, more hair than wit :
" Some seem, as they were starched stiff and fine,
" Like to the bristles of some angry swine ;
"And some to set their love's desire on edge,
** Are cut and prun'd like a quickset hedge ;
" Some like a spade, some like a fork, some square,
" Some round, some mow'd like stubble, some stark
^* bare ;
Some sharp, stiletto fashion, dagger-like.
That may with whispring, a man's eyes outpike ;
" Some with the hammer cut, or roman T,
^* Their Beards extravagant, reform'd must be ;
** Some with the quadrate, some triangle fashion,
" Some circular, some oval in translation ;
" Some perpendicular in longitude ;
" Some like a thicket for their crassitude ;
"That heights, depths, breadths, triform, square,

" oval, round,
"And rules geometrical in Beards are found."

Although large Beards were not favoured by
ladies, yet a well dressed one was less objectionable.
A modem work (without giving any authority) men-
tions that a fine black whisker elegantly turned up
was a mark of dignity with the fair sex ; " and in
" those days (before the reign of Louis XIV.) it was
"the general custom for a favourite lover to have

4(

24

his whiskers turned up, combed and pomatumed
by his mistress ; and for this purpose a man of
" fashion took care to be provided with every little
" necessary article, especially whisker wax. It was
" highly flattering to a lady to have it in her power
to praise the beauty of her lover s whiskers ; which,
far from being disgusting, gave his person an air
" of vivacity," &c.

Amongst lovers, many foolish things have passed
when no third person was allowed behind the scenes ;
but one of the amusements practised in former times
is traced from an old play, by Middleton and Rowley
(The Changling, Act II.)—

Def. — O my blood !
Methink I feel her in mine arms already.
Her wanton fingers combing out my beard," &c.

Again — in Randolph's Jealous Lover (Act III.
1652)—

" Phryne. — (I!ome, beauteous Mars —

m m m

" I must not have this Beard so rudely grow,

" But with my needle I will set each hair

" In decent order, as you rank your squadrons."

On the " Defence of Women by Edwarde More,"
1567.

" In combing of theyr berdes, in strok3aig them

" full ofte,
^' In wass)mg them with wassing balles, in look-

" ing all alofte,

25

*^ In plaitting of them divers wayes^ in b}mding

" them in bande,
" Wherein their hole delyght alwayes consysts

^^ and standes/'

There is no accounting for the taste of ladies.
Charles Brandon^ Duke of Suffolk^ with his large
massive Beard^ won the heart of the fair sister of
Henry VIII. Although the *^ Cloth of friez may
" not be too bold," the courtship was most probably
begun by the lady {i. e. the Cloth of Gold). Al-
though ladies do not speak out, they have a way of
expressing their wishes by the " eloquence of eyes."
That the fair princess ever amused herself in combing,
or brushing her husband's beard, is not recorded
in the History of England.

A slight notice may be made concerning the
materials used for the Beard. First, Beard-combs, as
in the following Play by Heywood (The English
Traveller, Act IV. 1533).
" Reig. First, sir,

*^ Resolve me one thing : amongst other merchan-
" dize

" Bought in your absence by your sonne and me,

" Wee ingrost a great commoditie of combes,

" And how many sorts thinke you ?
" Old Lio. — You might buy

" Some of the bones of fishes, some of beests.
Box-combes and ivory combes.
" Reig. — But besides these, we have for horses,

((

"sir,

Mayne-combes and curry-combes ; now, sir, for
men,

26

" We have head-combes, Beard-eambeSy I, and
" Cox-combes too."

The account of Beard-brushes may occasionally be
found in old plays, as in the " Queen of Corinth"
(Act II. Scene 4).

" Hay with your Pisa-beard, why whereas

" Your brush, pupil ?

" He must have a brush, sir."

In a work entitled ^^ Prance painted to the life,"
1666 (p. 94), it is mentioned that the artificers in
Paris are very perfect in tooth-picks, Beard-brttshes,
and the cutting of a seal.

In page 96-6-7 of the same work, is a good de-
scription of a well-dressed barber being taken for a
German lord.

We have frequently met with the old proverb —

" It is merry in hall

" When Beards wag all — "

without being much struck with the idea. We are
accustomed to view the portraits of the great men of
form erdays as they are represented in stilUlifej which
have a dignified appearance, without imagining how
the same persons would look when seated round a
convivial board; these solemn appendages joining
in a hearty laugh, or wagging their chins in eating.
This proverb may also be found in the early part
of the fourteenth century, as in the romance of Kyng
Alesaunder, —

" Swithe mury hit is in halle,
" When the burdes wawen alle !"

27

Fig. 1 to 38 contain various specimens of Beards
and Mustachios from the year 1 500 to the reign of
Charles 11. They are selected from individuals of
different ranks in life ; without any regard to the
character or the mind of their respective owners, I
have confined myself merely to the fashion and the
form of the Beard and Mustachio, whether they be-
long to the head of wisdom or of folly. The follow-
ing quotation is from the Royal Master by Shirley
(1638), Act I. Scene 1.

This is an honest, easy nobleman,
Allowed to wear some court formality,

" Walk on the terrace, pick his teeth, and stroke.
Upon a festival, some golden sentence
Out of his beard, for which the guard admire
" him,

" And cry him up a statesman !"

In the Epigrams from the Muses' Recreation, 1 640,
by Sir J. Mennes and Dr. J. Smith : —

Thy beard is long, better it would thee fit.
To have a shorter beard, and longer wit."

The large and profuse Beard (such as worn by
Cranmer, Knox, Grindall, Cardinal Pole, Lord Sey-
mour of Sudley, &c.) were much ridiculed by the
early writers of the sixteenth century. It is thus
playfully attacked in Lyly's Midas (Act V.)

" a dozen of beards

" To stuffe two dozen of cushions/'

In Decker's Gull's Horn-book, 1609 (reprinted
1812), are mentioned Beards ^^ to stuff breeches and
" tennis balls."

((
((

28

A similar application of the Beard is sportively
alluded to by Shakspeare : —

And your beards deserve not so honourable a

grave as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be en-
" tombed in an ass's pack-saddle." — Coriolanus,
Act II. Scene 2.

In the Honest Whore, Part 2, Act I. : —

" If any man would have lent but half a ducat on
" his beard J the hair of it had stuft a pair of breeches
" by this time."

The long Mustachio is thus ridiculed : —

" All my mistress's lines that she dries her cloathes
" on, are made only of mustachio stuff, &c." — Lyly's
Midas.

And at a later period, as in Gil Bias, Don Annibal
de Cinchilla is thus described : —

" C'^toit un homme de soixante ans, d'un taille
" gigantesque, et d'une maigreur extraordinaire. D
" portoit une epaisse moustache, qui s'elevoit en ser-
" pentant des deux cdt^s jusqu'aux tempes, &c." —
(Livre vii. c. 12.)

The variety of the Forked Beard (fig. 2, 3, 5 and
6) is not confined to the sixteenth century only, but
may be found at an earlier period (see the Bayeux
Tapestry, Plate i.). In the reign of Edward III.
Chaucer has described his Merchant as wearing a
" forked beard." The Beard of Pope Gregory XIV.
was of this fashion ; and J. Hall, a surgeon, wore a
forked Beard, as fig. 6.

James V. of Scotland, and Edward Dering, wore a
different kind of forked Beard, i. e. the Mustachios
from the upper lips were made to bend down and to
form two points below the chin.

29

Fig. 4 is a sketch from a highly finished engraving,
shewing the curled Mustachios and a remarkable
thin transparent Beard, so thin that the dark gown
and ruff are seen through it.

Fig. 9. A natural fool.

Fig. 7. Conrad von der Rosen, who saved the life
of the Emperor Maximilian at the hazard of his own :
he was the chief of the buffoons. In Dives and
Pauper (1496), a distinction is made between the
" Naturel Foole," and the " Fole Sage." The one
is an idiot, the other a buffoon or jester ; the latter a
man of some genius, as it requires ability to play the
fool well.

Without entering into the various dresses of the
fools of former days, the following passage may be
worthy of notice. In a romance of the fourteenth
century, Ipomydon, in order to personate a fool, had
one-half of his Beard shaven : —

Righte unsemely, on queynte manure.

He hym dight, as ye shall here.
*^ A harbor he caUyd, withouten more.

And shove hym bothe behynd and before,

Gueyntly endentyd, out and in ;

And also he shove halfe his chynne :

He semyd a fole, that queynte syre,
" Bothe by hede and by atyre."

In the various portraits of Bishop Hall, he is re-
presented as wearing a Tile or Spade-Beard.

Of the Tile-Beard, from its shape, such a one is
thus described in Hudibras : —

3a

** His tawny beard was th' equal grace
" Both of his wisdom and his face.

In Cut and Dye so like a Tile

A sudden view it wou*d beguile." — Part 1 , e. i.

The following Unes are from the works of Butler :

This rev'rend brother, like a goat
Did wear a tail upon his throat,
The frenge and tassel of a face,
" That gives it a becoming grace,
" But set in such a curious frame,
^^ As it were wrought in filograin,
" And cut in ev'n as if *t had been
*- Drawn with a pen upon his chin.
" No toping hedge of quickset,
" Was e'r so neatly cut, or thick set," &c. &c.

Fig. 14 and 18 are two different specimens of
the Tile-Beard. The Earl of Essex has been de-
scribed as wearing a Spade-Beard^ i. e, like a spade
with the comers rounded off (fig. 25), while his Mend
the Earl of Southampton wore a Steeletto or Bodkin-^
Beard. A print in the Heroologia represents Cardi-
nal Pole as wearing a circular Beard.

Fig. 13 represents a circular Beard divided into
three parts ; the upper part under the lower lip is left
naked.

Among the round Beards worthy of notice (fig. 16)
is that of the renowned Captain J. Smith, one of the
greatest travellers and adventurers in the reigns of
Queen Elizabeth and James. He fought with three
Turks, and cut off their heads. A most formidable
looking fellow he was, with a Beard Uke the husk of

31

a chesnut. In his Voyage to Virginia he gave an
account of the clumsy mode of shaving among the
natives, and most probably, not liking their operation,
he returned to England unshaved.

Fig 17, or 26, may be considered as a specimen of
the Swallow-taile cut, as mentioned by Tom Nashe
(1596).

Fig. 12, a specimen of the Sugar-loaf Beard, of
the time of Elizabeth, and worn by Lord Seymour
of Sudley.

The broad spread-out beard (sometimes with the
comers rounded) is frequently seen amongst the por-
traits of Germans. Fig. 15 and 19 are specimens
which prevailed about the time of Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth; fig. 19 may be found as late as 1654, as
worn by the Marquis of Clanricarde.

The Bodkin beard was worn by the great Earl of
Cumberland, and by a humble conjuror (fig. 24)
Hocus Pocus, jun. the author of the Anatomic of
Legerdemain, and also by the celebrated Prynne,
the great enemy of Bishops, Players, long hairs and
love-locks.

Figs. 22, 23, 24, 27, 34, 35, and 38 contain various
specimens of the Steeletto or Bodkin Beard.

Midas (in the old Play by Lyly) is described as
having a Bodkin Beard or Pike devant. And in
Act V. sc. 3, are these words : —

" I i^dll have it so sharp pointed, that it may stab.
Motto, like a Poynardo."

There is an old portrait with a Beard as sharp as
a needle in the long gallery at Cobham Hall, in Kent.

32

Fig. 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, and 38, shew that
the fashion of wearing a full Beard was declining.

It was formeriy the custom, sometimes, to dye the
Beard or Mustachio of different colours. Bulwer, in
page 212-13, speaks of Beard dyers, and the folly and
vanity of dyed Beards, "especially among old

Leachers, who knowing grey-haire in the beard

to be manifest signe of a decay of the generative

faculty," &c.

Fig. 32 represents one of the Must^chios dyed of
a dark colour.

In the old Comedy of Ram Alley (1611) :

" What coloured beard come next by the window ?

" A black man's, I think.

*^ I think a red ; for that is most in fashion."

Again in the Silent Woman — " I have " fitted
my divine and canonist, dyed their beards ^^ and
alir

Again, in the Alchemist —

" He had dy'd his beard and all."

A variety of coloured Beards are mentioned in the
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. sc. 2 : —

" Bottom. I will discharge it in either your straw-
" coloured beard, your orange-tawney beard, your
" purple-in-green beard, or your French-crown-colour
" beard, your perfect yellow."

Fig. 33. A singular Beard on each side of the
cheeks.

Fig. 34 and 38. The points or ends of the Mus-
tachios and the Beard form an equilateral triangle.

Fig. 36. The T, or the Hammer-cuty as described
by Taylor the Water Poet.

33

The fashion of wearing; the roman T Beard pre-
vailed in the reign of Charles I., as appears from
"The Queen of Corinth, Act IV. so. 1 (1647)—

he " strokes his heard
" Which now he puts i' th' posture of a T.
" The roman T ; your T beard is the fashion/*

And now, my gentle readers, 100 copies only are
printed for the Author's hundred friends (if such are
to be found) and not for sale. It was not his in-
tention to enter too far back into the antiquity of the
Beard. One writer says that Adam wore a red Beard,
without giving any authority ; although he most pro-
bably wore it very long, i.e. before scissars or razors
were invented. Iron and steel were hardly known
before the time of Tubal-cain. Nor to mention the
forked Beard of Aaron, when the ointment ran down
from it upon his cloaths to the delight of the Jewish
ladies. Nor in speaking of the Egyptians, that the
Theban Ammon-ra was represented with a narrow
elongated Beard ; and that Peter the Great interfered
with the large Beards of his subjects, as the East India
Company attempted to do with the Mustachios of
the Sepoys. George the Fourth, when Prince of
Wales, had the taste to admire the Mustachios of
his German soldiers : he commanded his own regi-
ment to wear them. We have had the sense within
the last thirty or forty years to abolish the fashion of
wearing Pig-tails, and when the order was given
to the army, each regiment was drawn out, and th©

34

soldiers^ who are always quick in obeying the
orders of the commanding officer, when the word
was given, faced, and each man cut off his com-
rade's Pig-taily and all the Fig-tails were cut off in
ten minutes. Now a poor recruit can no longer
complain that his Pig-tail ^was tied so tight that
he could not get a'^^-^^^^^^^^wink of^sleep. Printed

forl-A-R-by IB- and I"G-— </

Nichols • 25 Parliament

^Street • In • the • year^

of our LORD • one

thousand • eight

^\hundred.&. '

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

*ig. 1. The Beard of Archbishop Cranmer. The dotted

lines below describe the length of the Beard of

Knox.
2. The Beard of Theodore Beza.
Kg. 3. Ferdinand of Toledo, Duke of Alva, Governor of

the Low Country, 1567*
Fig. 4. J. Stumppius.
Fig. 5. Petrus Martyr.
Fig. 6. John Fox (obiit 1587).
i^. 8. John Calvin.
Figs. 7j 9, 10, 11. From the wood-cuts of " Le Triomphe de

TEmpereur Maximilien I." (1517-9).
Kg. 12. J. Morus, S. T. P. (obiit 1592) ; also by Seymour

Duke of Somerset, and by Titian and Corregio.
Fig. 13. Hans Sachs Teiitscher, Poet, and by Duke of Sully.
Kg. 14. J. Himmelius.
Kg. 15. Wolgangus Musculus (1497-1563).
Fig. 16. Captain John Smith, Admiral of New England.
Kg. 17. H. Wellerus.
Fig. 18. J. Kimedontius (1596).
Fig. 19. John Bale.
Fig. 20. D. Gaspar y Pimentel Conde, Duque de Olivares,

Primer Ministro y gran Privado de Filipe IV.

(1587-1645) ; the Mustachio (without the beard)

by the Marquess of Montrose.*
Kg. 21. Paulus Melissus.

Fig, 22. George CliflFord, Earl of Cumberland (obiit 1605).
Kg. 23. Sir Edward Coke.
Fig. 24. Hocus Pocus, jun. the author of the ^^ Anatomie of

Legerdemaine.'^

Fig. 25. Robert Earl of Essex.

Kg. 26. Erasmus Schmidt (1560-1637).

* The Spaniards were funous for the long curled Mnstaohio, ai in a portrait of
Diq;o FhiHp de Gozman.

36

Fig. 27« King Charles I. from a medal, also by Albert Prince

Aremberg.
Fig. 28. PauluB de Yos, lector.
Fig. 29. John Taylor, the Water Poet.
Fig. 30. Charles Earl of Derby (obiit 1672).
Fig. 31. Francis i Donia (1648).
Fig. 32. Ab. Calovius.
Fig. 33. N. Vigelius de Dreisa.
Fig. 34. Christian IV. King of Denmark.
E^. 35. H. Everhard Cratz (1648).
Kg. 36. N. G. Raigersperg (1649).

Figs. 37 and 38. Italian Painters (1625) from the '' Bitratti
de* alcuni Celebri Pittori.*'

Fig. 37 has two small tufts^ one from under his lip^ and the
other on the chin. Cardinal Borromeo (1564-1631) wore
the same ; but this is not confined to the Italians^ as J. Max
Zumjungen^ of Francfort (1649), is thus represented in a
print.

Louis de Camoens and Balthazar Castiglione wore a large
round Beard.

Rubens, — a Beard with large tumed-up Mustachios.

Leonardo da Vinci, — a large flowing Beard with a quantity
of hair spreading over his shoulders, and also worn by Albeft
Durer.

Fig. 38. Worn by Gustavus Adolphus and by Philip Earl
of Pembroke (obiit 1650).

Figs. 1> 6, 12, 22, 25^ are sketches from the Heroologia
(1620).

Figs. 2 and 8. From Yerheiden's portraits of the Reform-
ation (1602).

Figs. 13, 18, 21, 32, and 33. From the ^' Bibliothee*.
Chalcographica per Theodoro de Bry, Sculp.^

Figs. 14, 17, and 26. From '^ Fricheri Theatrum Virorum
Erudit. 1688.'^

The remaining figures are taken from various prints, &c.

J. B. Nidiolfl and: Son, Printers, 25, Pturliameiit Street.

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